A Cisco Catalyst switch needs to send frames over a Layer 2 EtherChannel. Which answer best describes how the switch balances the traffic over the four active links in the channel?

A Cisco Catalyst switch needs to send frames over a Layer 2 EtherChannel. Which answer best describes how the switch balances the traffic over the four active links in the channel?

• Breaks each frame into fragments of approximately one-fourth of the original frame, sending one fragment over each link
• Sends the entire frame over one link, alternating links in sequence for each successive frame
• Sends the entire frame over one link, choosing the link by applying some math to fields in each frame’s headers
• Sends the entire frame over one link, using the link with the lowest percent utilization as the next link to use

Explanation: EtherChannel load distribution, or load balancing, on Cisco Catalyst switches uses an algorithm. The algorithm examines some fields in the various headers, so messages that have the same values in those fields always flow over the same link in a particular EtherChannel. Note that it does not break the frames into smaller fragments nor use a round-robin approach that ignores the header values, and it does not examine link utilization when making the choice.